News: DC.COM: Carr Anticipates Personal Improvement Down Stretch

IRVING, Texas – Brandon Carr has preached the same story every single week this season.

“It’s going to be a 60-minute battle” and “we have to take it one week at a time.”

As cliché as it may seem, it actually sounds sincere coming from Carr. Every single week Carr is asked to contain the opposing team’s best receiver. All the while he is expected to continue to be a leader for the secondary and mentor rookie Morris Claiborne.

So it makes sense that Carr only focuses on “one week at a time.”

Carr has made a great impression as a smart and physical corner for the Cowboys. But coming into last Sunday’s game against the Eagles, he had yet to do one of the things that a lot of people had expected of him: intercept a pass. That all changed in Philadelphia when Carr picked off Nick Foles and ran the ball back 48 yards for his first career touchdown.

Carr implied on Thursday that his performance against the Eagles might be a sign of things to come.

I was very glad to see that INT but it was a fluke and not due to his ability. In fact he was beaten badly on the play. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer. I'd love to see us going more in the way of TOs. Everyone. Where is Sean Lee when you need him?

IMO, how little true major blitzes we've seen this year is an indictment of the money given to Carr and the high pick spent on Claiborne.

I think it is fine to build a defense around great CBs who require minimal assist from other players on the field so that you can send more guys after the QB but then you have to be able to find those players. $50 and a top 6 pick later and it looks like we swung and missed twice. Now neither of them are bad players but I also would say neither of them in nearly as good as TNew and Mike Jenkins were in 2009.

Claiborne is still young and can improve but he has major physical limitations as a CB - I've never seen a top 10 CB who was such a limited athlete before. Carr is as good as he is going to get at this stage of his career which is not bad but far from great.

The GM of this team needs to be held accountable for these decisions but it will not happen.

IMO, how little true major blitzes we've seen this year is an indictment of the money given to Carr and the high pick spent on Claiborne.

I think it is fine to build a defense around great CBs who require minimal assist from other players on the field so that you can send more guys after the QB but then you have to be able to find those players. $50 and a top 6 pick later and it looks like we swung and missed twice. Now neither of them are bad players but I also would say neither of them in nearly as good as TNew and Mike Jenkins were in 2009.

Claiborne is still young and can improve but he has major physical limitations as a CB - I've never seen a top 10 CB who was such a limited athlete before. Carr is as good as he is going to get at this stage of his career which is not bad but far from great.

The GM of this team needs to be held accountable for these decisions but it will not happen.

IMO, how little true major blitzes we've seen this year is an indictment of the money given to Carr and the high pick spent on Claiborne.

I think it is fine to build a defense around great CBs who require minimal assist from other players on the field so that you can send more guys after the QB but then you have to be able to find those players. $50 and a top 6 pick later and it looks like we swung and missed twice. Now neither of them are bad players but I also would say neither of them in nearly as good as TNew and Mike Jenkins were in 2009.

Claiborne is still young and can improve but he has major physical limitations as a CB - I've never seen a top 10 CB who was such a limited athlete before. Carr is as good as he is going to get at this stage of his career which is not bad but far from great.

The GM of this team needs to be held accountable for these decisions but it will not happen.

I was very glad to see that INT but it was a fluke and not due to his ability. In fact he was beaten badly on the play. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer. I'd love to see us going more in the way of TOs. Everyone. Where is Sean Lee when you need him?

I find your honestly refreshing. I made the same claim right after the play in the game thread and got verbally assaulted for it.

He was beaten. The throw was behind Jackson and the ball hit off another defender's leg to allow Carr the pick. Congrats on making the play, but yeah there was a ton of luck involved.

All of them were much better pure athletes than him which is not necessarily to say that all of them were better CBs than Claiborne will become. But all of those guys were definitely a cut above Claiborne athletically. When you don't have those sudden change of direction skills and elite catch-up speed you will always be limited by need for more deep help and less ability to gamble because you won't be able to recover from any mistakes.

IMO, top 10 CBs need to be ultra-elite athletes to be worth the pick because they will otherwise need too much help to enter into the elite stratosphere.

The only reason to contemplate taking Claiborne that high was not that he was ever going to be a real lockdown kind of coverage player but one who was going to intercept a bunch of throws. The only pass he has picked off this year was that pop-up that Cam Newton threw into the middle of nowhere that he intercepted. He has not picked off a pass yet intended for the WR he has been covering.

I think Clai has been pretty good for a rookie corner but I don't see the potential to suggest he was worth trading up into the top 10 for. I hope I am wrong but all I see is a guy who one day might be a good player but right now is an average starting CB.

Wow, Eskimo. Can't say I agree with, or even understand, your assessment of either CB. Players and coaches have commented all year long about the quality of the improvements to the secondary and it's effects on the defense. Neither was a swing-and-a-miss. And, in particular, the premium we played for Carr is what happens when you have to shop for a number one CB in FA.

I don't love having to overpay at a position of major need, but that's what happens when you're shopping for quality at that position.

Wow, Eskimo. Can't say I agree with, or even understand, your assessment of either CB. Players and coaches have commented all year long about the quality of the improvements to the secondary and it's effects on the defense. Neither was a swing-and-a-miss. And, in particular, the premium we played for Carr is what happens when you have to shop for a number one CB in FA.

I don't love having to overpay at a position of major need, but that's what happens when you're shopping for quality at that position.

I expected great play for the investments made and I don't think we have received great play from this pair of CBs. I don't think they have been particularly bad. I just don't think they have been all that great.

Part of my problem with the CB play is how regularly they have been burned when we blitz. Ryan is rarely blitzing this year and when he does his CBs get butchered with alarming regularity. This suggests to me that the defensive improvement probably has more to do with the play of the LBs in coverage and the overall play of the secondary as a whole versus the elevated play from the CBs. Go back and look at the 2009 season when Wade was running the show and you'll see how often we left TNew and Jenks on an island and how often they responded when tested. The problem with that defensive unit was how woeful Brooking and Bradie James were and the lack of contribution from the DEs in the pass rush.

I do agree that we are better than we were last year but that is probably more due to how bad TNew and Jenkins were playing at the end of the year from all their injuries.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of performance Ryan can get out of this defense going up against all these rookie QBs over the last half of the season. I am hoping for some confusion (for the QB and not in our secondary) leading to some turnovers. Washington always play us tough and we often have struggled against scrambling QBs but maybe we'll be better with Sims and Carter patrolling the middle.

To me it is shocking that our #6 overall CB could not beat out a 6-5 260 pound OLB in agility drills and just beat him by a nose in the 40. Is it any surprise that Julio Jones blew by him two weeks ago when we played the Falcons. What will happen if the Eagles get a 1-on-1 matchup with DJax against Clai? These physical mismatches should not be available when you have invested this much in a CB.

Again, maybe I am wrong and the Cowboys' FO was very confident about this pick and many had him as the #2 player in the draft. I just don't see how he is a good enough athlete to be left alone on an island against top WRs. If he can't do that then he isn't worth a top 10 pick because you can get good tackling zone CBs much later in the draft.

I worry that all that grabbing he was doing last week are due to the inability to run with WRs down the field. If this is the case, once the refs have zeroed in on you, you will be exposed unless you change your tactics. Every coach in the league is going to target him mercilessly and they are going to be in the ear of the refs to watch out for Clai holding and grabbing.

He should have an easy week against the Browns and their rookie QB and he'll get to see RG3 twice before the end of the year. However, he will face Drew Brees later and it'll be interesting to see how they choose to attack us. I don't think they let Clai off the hook and he'll have to show he can cover without grabbing.

Both Carr and Claiborne were proven qualities for either a pickup via free agency or via the draft. The value was set by league wide evaluators and scouts...to nannie poo poo those evaluations, because both are now Cowboys, doesn't touch an already established picture for either of these players.

C'mon now, who are we trying to impress here? Did you measure hand size and foot size as well?

The fruit of this pudding is the greatly improved overall play by a Dallas se condary from last season to this. The league wide stats validate this overall upsurge in the Dallas defense.

Perhaps nose size and how far down ears sit could reveal as much...? Oh this goes directly to sizing the diamond studs in both...as to cash equity.

Last season, two late-season losses to the New York Giants essentially kept Dallas out of the playoffs. Dallas didn't sack Eli Manning once in 47 pass attempts in the first game.

This year has changed...the Cowboys harrassed Manning, and held him to 190passing yards despite losing 29-24. That even occuring following the first game that Sean Lee was lost to the defense.

The Dallas defense held an undefeated Atlanta Falcons team to 19 points in another close loss.

But further change along the defensive side was shown when in a close game with Philadelphia, the defense scored twice in the fourth quarter for a win.

Actually, the defense has been playing some pretty good ball as of recently. And trying to poop on an impromptu parade to create crisis management instead, is just being premature as well as nit picking for micro managing frustrations.

Yes, the current CB play is better than the play from last year but far below what it was in 2009 when we were #2 overall in defense and up there in ppg allowed as well. This is despite eons better play from the ILBs.

My sole point is that I don't think we are getting the quality of play that you should get when you have a $50M CB on one side and a #6 overall CB on the other side. Ryan has been scared to blitz and leave his CBs alone because when he does we get burned through the air. The CBs need a lot of help to cover WRs. Now I wouldn't mind this if we had middling type investments there and had chosen to fortify the DL instead with a $10M player and a #6 overall pick but that is not the route we chose.

I hope I am wrong about Clai because we need him to become a shutdown type CB because of how limited Carr seems to be. He was beaten bad by DJax on his lone INT and Brandon Marshall absolutely abused him when given an isolation matchup. He is in his fifth year in the league so he isn't going to improve much beyond this point which is okay for a #2 type CB who you try to protect in your scheme.

Yes, the current CB play is better than the play from last year but far below what it was in 2009 when we were #2 overall in defense and up there in ppg allowed as well. This is despite eons better play from the ILBs.

My sole point is that I don't think we are getting the quality of play that you should get when you have a $50M CB on one side and a #6 overall CB on the other side. Ryan has been scared to blitz and leave his CBs alone because when he does we get burned through the air. The CBs need a lot of help to cover WRs. Now I wouldn't mind this if we had middling type investments there and had chosen to fortify the DL instead with a $10M player and a #6 overall pick but that is not the route we chose.

I hope I am wrong about Clai because we need him to become a shutdown type CB because of how limited Carr seems to be. He was beaten bad by DJax on his lone INT and Brandon Marshall absolutely abused him when given an isolation matchup. He is in his fifth year in the league so he isn't going to improve much beyond this point which is okay for a #2 type CB who you try to protect in your scheme.

You have to realize that Claiborne is a rookie. He WILL get better. He may not be the best athlete, but I don't think you have to be an ultra elite athlete, even though you think you do.

He has fared very well this season so far, and you bring up a play against Julio Jones, but what you fail to point out is that Julio Jones is a big time talent himself. He makes plays often. EVERY defensive player will get beaten at some point, it's the nature of the game.

At the end of the day, with both CBs, the good far outweighs the bad. Has any team really gone into a game against Dallas and thrown all over them?

From a numbers stand point they rank 6th in the NFL averaging only 211 passing yards a game. All this with an inconsistent pass rush and a revolving door at the free safety position. Someones gotta be doing something right, and something leads me to believe its the stability of the defensive backs!

IRVING, Texas – Brandon Carr has preached the same story every single week this season.

“It’s going to be a 60-minute battle” and “we have to take it one week at a time.”

As cliché as it may seem, it actually sounds sincere coming from Carr. Every single week Carr is asked to contain the opposing team’s best receiver. All the while he is expected to continue to be a leader for the secondary and mentor rookie Morris Claiborne.

So it makes sense that Carr only focuses on “one week at a time.”

Carr has made a great impression as a smart and physical corner for the Cowboys. But coming into last Sunday’s game against the Eagles, he had yet to do one of the things that a lot of people had expected of him: intercept a pass. That all changed in Philadelphia when Carr picked off Nick Foles and ran the ball back 48 yards for his first career touchdown.

Carr implied on Thursday that his performance against the Eagles might be a sign of things to come.